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Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Mon Aug 01, 2005 at 02:14:16 PM EST
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by TChris

The more extreme members of the right wing believe that any harm a prisoner experiences is just part of the punishment he or she should endure. But punishments are fixed by courts, not by prisons. When the government takes custody of an individual, it is the government’s obligation to be a responsible custodian. That means protecting prisoners from foreseeable injury.

According to a Justice Department study, our prisons have done a woeful job of protecting inmates from sexual abuse.

The study concluded that there were 8,210 alleged acts of sexual violence reported to officials in the nation's jails and prisons, which hold about 2.1 million inmates. Of those, officials were able to substantiate 2,090 allegations, the study said. Justice Department officials acknowledged that probably many more sexual assaults have taken place.

"Administrative records cannot alone provide reliable estimates of sexual violence," wrote Allen Beck and Timothy Hughes, the Justice Department statisticians who authored the report mandated by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act. "Due to fear of reprisal from perpetrators, a code of silence among inmates, personal embarrassment, and lack of trust in staff, victims are often reluctant to report incidents to correctional authorities."

Sadly, too few politicians care about the lives of prison inmates. After all, inmates in most states can’t vote. They don’t have lobbyists and they can’t make campaign contributions. But apart from humanitarian concerns, there are practical reasons to support efforts to reduce sexual violence in prison.

This year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, cited what he called a shocking estimate that one in 10 prisoners is raped. He said the violence would increase the likelihood of prisoners committing crimes again or passing on sexually transmitted diseases after their release.

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    Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons | 17 comments (17 topical)
    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#1)
    by jarober on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Perhaps if TL, the New York Times (et. al.) spent even 1/10th the amount of time that they spent on Abu Ghraib, something like movement might happen.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    And keep in mind, those are the numbers that are *reported*. The nature of masculinity and prison cosmology being what it is, most sexual assaults go unreported in prisons (looking weak, fear of reprisal, etc). Conservative estimates put the number around 200,000 inmates being raped annually in American prisons. Others speculate it's much higher.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#3)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Also keep in mind that with the rates of HIV and hepatitis exploding in prisons, that the infliction of such violence can turn into a death sentence.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#4)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    JR: You're not paying attention. TalkLeft has written dozens of articles on Inmates and Prisons, many (if not most) are directly involving prison violence and prison conditions. Open mouth, insert foot, chew vigorously. And in case you haven't noticed, Abu Ghraib is an American prison (in that it is run by Americans), staffed in large part by reservists whose day jobs consist of running civilian prisons on American soil. It's the same issue.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#5)
    by jarober on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    I haven't searched the archives here, but it certainly seems to me that TL has spent tons more time on Abu Ghraib - a place where the military is, in fact, punishing the guilty - than it has on prisons here in the states. As to the NY Times - lol. They've spent tons of ink on Abu Ghraib, and rarely (if ever) spend time on the horror show that are state and federal prisons here in the US

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    TL has spent tons more time on Abu Ghraib - a place where the military is, in fact, punishing the guilty
    so now everyone that is in prison in iraq has been tried and convicted? i think not. nobody likes to talk about the prison system here because any large scale reforms would require tons of cash that no one wants to spend. for example, screening incoming prisoners for HIV and providing separate and equal living facilities.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#7)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    anyone else think rape amounts to 'cruel and unusual punishment'? The prevalence is so high that prison authorities can be considered negligent or complicit.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#8)
    by Wile ECoyote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    TChris:
    The more extreme members of the right wing believe that any harm a prisoner experiences is just part of the punishment he or she should endure.
    If you don't mind, Name one member of the right wing who says that. Thanks!

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#9)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    rush, Eli Leher from NRO, Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg ... etc, etc, etc.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#10)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Rush's comments are scoped to prisoners from the war in Iraq, not domestic policy. Eli Leher's article is actually anti-prison-rape. Jonah Goldberg was probably making fun of Dr. Robert Pierce's involvement with the Texas Prison Archives, but even if taken literally, nothing he said endorses prison rape or addresses it as punishment. But, yes, Ann Coulter is a b*tch.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#11)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Name one member of the right wing who says that.
    I named 4 after 2 minutes on google. Even you agreed at least one does. 'nuff said.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#12)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Wile: California attorney general Bill Lockyer.
    “I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey,’” Lockyer said.
    Hyuk hyuk! Isn't Jay Leno kinda right-wing too? Anyway, there you go. You're welcome!

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#13)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Bill Lockyer is a Democrat.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#14)
    by jarober on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    When I said: "a place where the military is, in fact, punishing the guilty" I meant, the members of the military who committed the bad acts. They are being punished. As to the mention of Bill Lockyer above; he's a Democrat, not a Republican - and he's no conservative Democrat, either. So yeah, you found an example of someone saying something obscene. Sadly, you made the same mistake Howard Dean made recently when he blamed Kelo on conservatives.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    I think we're all in agreement on the main issue here: sexual abuse in prisons is wrong, regardless of the fact that the victims are criminals. I don't think it's fair to paint the right as supporting sexual abuse, whatever Bill Lockyer may have said. You'll notice no one in this thread is defending it. As usual TChris paints with a broad brush and little regard for what his opponents actually think.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#16)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:50 PM EST
    US prisons, especially state prisons, which are by far the worst offenders, do an excellent job of turning your average criminal sex offender into murdering animal sex offenders. Evidenced in what we saw in the recent Idaho case.

    Re: Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons (none / 0) (#17)
    by Wile ECoyote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:50 PM EST
    Sailor: Thanks! AAron: You have any proof what happened in Idaho was because of the US prison system? It is never anyones fault. The system/ society made me do it.

    Confronting Sexual Violence in Prisons | 17 comments (17 topical)